Shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac rose in premarket dealings Wednesday morning on reports that U.S. lawmakers have reached a deal on a plan to help the mortgage giants and the ailing housing market. Congressional leaders have put together a deal on a housing package that would allow the government to assist Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in an emergency, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. See full story

WaMu reports $3.33 bln quarterly net loss

Washington Mutual
WM, -0.24%
reported a second-quarter net loss of $3.33 billion late Tuesday, as the nation's largest thrift set aside an extra $3.74 billion to cover loan losses from the mortgage meltdown and credit crisis. See full story.

BOE policymakers split 3 ways on rates in July

Bank of England policymakers were divided three ways over interest-rate policy earlier this month, with seven members of the Monetary Policy Committee voting to hold rates steady, while one argued for a hike and another pleaded for a cut, according to a summary of the July 10 meeting released Wednesday. See full story.

Short sales dropped sharply in wake of SEC order, S3 says

Traders and investors pared back bets that stocks will drop, particularly those bets not backed by borrowed stock, in the wake of a regulatory order to enforce the settlement rules regarding such short sales, S3 Matching Technologies said. See full story

Julius Baer net slips as assets under management fall

Julius Baer said first-half profit fell 3% to 412 million Swiss francs ($400 million), or down 2% to a better-than-forecast 510 million francs when excluding integration, restructuring expenses and amortization of intangible assets. See full story

As lenders rush to curtail their real-estate exposure and preserve sorely needed capital, they are triggering lawsuits from builders that say the banks have unfairly cut off their construction financing, stopped their projects midstream and forced their companies to the brink of bankruptcy. See full story at WSJ.com

Banking on Pollyanna

Wachovia
WB, -0.82%
may have reported a record $8.86 billion loss Tuesday, but something in the bank's second-quarter results caused the stock to soar 27%. That something? Most likely numbers that suggest the bank can earn enough money in the coming quarters to offset large losses it will take on troubled mortgages. See full story at WSJ.com

Cuomo Readies UBS Civil Suit

New York state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is making preparations to file civil securities-fraud charges against UBS AG
UBS, -3.44%
possibly as early as this week -- the first of several cases that could grow out of New York's investigations into the auction-rate-securities market and another blow for the industry and UBS. See full story at WSJ.com

Paulson & Co. plans fund to provide capital to financial firms

John Paulson the money manager whose wagers against the U.S. housing market helped him earn an estimated $3.7 billion last year, is starting a hedge fund to provide capital to financial firms hurt by mortgage write-downs. See full story at Bloomberg.com

HBOS shares climb, traders cite BBVA talk

Shares in British lender HBOS rose more than 12 percent on Wednesday, lifted by market talk of bid interest from Spanish rival BBVA and a broad recovery across the financial sector, traders said. See full story at Reuters.com

Bush says Wall Street 'got drunk'

President George W. Bush said Wall Street had "got drunk" and was experiencing a hangover at a recent closed-door fundraiser in Houston in which he also made light of the US housing crisis. See full story at FT.com

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